A cashless welfare card is being trialled in parts of Australia, including the East Kimberly, where they have been made permanent.
Photograph: Melissa Davey for the Guardian

Domestic violence has increased significantly in the East Kimberley since the introduction of the cashless welfare card, casting doubt on the government’s claims of its success.

Police data obtained under freedom of information law shows domestic-related assaults and police-attended domestic violence reports increased in the Kimberley communities of Wyndham and Kununurra since trials began in April 2016.

She believes there is a link between the card, financial hardship, and family violence.

“There’s huge amounts of money being spent here, and I guess the real question is, what other wonderful things could be put in place instead of this card?” Klein said.

But the Department of Social Services said there was “no evidence” the cards caused an increase in family violence.

“The number of domestic violence incidents reported in East Kimberley in 2016 is likely to have increased because more stringent police reporting meant incidents that were previously not recorded were now included in police reports,” a spokeswoman said.

“There’s a lack of services, there was all these wrap-around services that were promised … we don’t see any of them on the ground.”

Late last year, the government seized on an independent evaluation of the cards, which found they were successful in addressing substance abuse, violence, and other harmful behaviour.

Then human services minister, Alan Tudge, used the report to announce new trial sites in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder region of Western Australia and Bundaberg in Queensland.

The cards were also to be made permanent in the Kimberley and the second trial site in Ceduna, South Australia.

Tudge said Kalgoorlie-Boulder and Bundaberg experienced similar problems to the East Kimberley, including alcohol-fuelled violence, which the card had helped reduce.

“And that is too many kids born effectively brain damaged from foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, too many women getting bashed because of drunk men boozing up on the welfare dollar, and it is just too much violence generally,” Tudge told Perth radio.

“This card helps to stop some of that because it stops the welfare dollar being spent on the booze and spent on the drugs.”

Orima Research, which conducted the evaluation, had access to the police data on the Kimberley but did not include it in its report on the cards.

“Since the card has been implemented in our community we have been impressed by the positive results witnessed firsthand in reducing these harmful behaviours and assisting families to care for their children responsibly,” the group wrote in a submission to a Senate inquiry.

Last year local government leaders and Wyndham Aboriginal leaders Bianca Crake and Jean O’Reeri told Guardian Australia that the cashless welfare card was the best available option to reduce alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence, and sexual abuse in their communities.

The government has also repeatedly said the card would take some time to address entrenched and long-term problems, and that it was not a “panacea” for social ills.

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The Kimberley Land Council, representing local Indigenous communities, is strongly opposed to the card.

In a submission last year, the council’s deputy chief executive, Tyronne Garstone, said Aboriginal people and communities were often “penalised by punitive, experimental and top-down policies regarding an issue that impacts the whole of society”.

Garstone said the card was a “sledgehammer” approach that did little to address the root causes of social problems.

Klein said the evidence used to justify the government’s plans for a broader rollout was deeply flawed.